Dinger's Aviation Pages
THE SPITFIRE - ITS USE AS A NIGHT FIGHTER.
Updated March 2025
Updated March 2025
The Supermarine Spitfire was always meant to be used as both a day and night fighter¹. That was part of the doctrine for the defence of the UK that had been formulated between the two World Wars. In 1917, improved British defences forced the Germans to adopt night bombing of the UK by their Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers. The RAF assumed that in any future war, at least 50% of any bombing attacks would be made at night². In the cash-strapped aftermath of WWI, followed by the economic depression at the end of the 1920s, the RAF did not have the resources for separate, dedicated day and night fighter forces. They therefore determined all their fighters should be able to fly and fight by both day and night. During the 1920s the British developed the "zone fighter" concept of single-seat fighters equipped with radio and carrying landing and navigation lights, to defend London. They flew either standing patrols or were launched when enemy aircraft were detected crossing the coast, to patrol the "fighting zone" around the edge of London. The AW Siskin and Bristol Bulldog were the most successful of the zone fighter class. However, toward the end of the 1920s, the suggestion was made that a fighter without a radio or other night-flying aids might have a performance advantage to better catch enemy bombers, even if this meant they could only be used during daylight hours. This new class of fighter, called an "interceptor" resulted in the Hawker Fury fighter. It was meant to be based at aerodromes near the coast and be able to take off and climb fast enough to catch enemy bombers passing overhead. When tested in air exercises, it was found that without a radio the Fury had little chance of finding any enemy bombers, so they were retrofitted with radios, but they were never given night-flying equipment. From then on, the Air Ministry determined that all new fighters should combine the roles of "zone fighter" and "interceptor", and be able to fly and fight at night as well as have the speed and climb rate needed to overtake bombers. The first fighter to combine the two roles was the Gloster Gauntlet, followed by the Gloster Gladiator and then on to the Hurricane, Spitfire and Defiant.
By the time the Hurricane, Spitfire and Defiant were being developed, engine power and the structural weight of fighter aircraft had grown to such an extent that the extra weight of a radio, landing lights, navigation lights and blind-flying instruments took up a much lower proportion of the all-up weight of an aircraft. The Spitfire Mk I carried a TR 9D high-frequency radio with an air-to-ground range of about 50 miles. The radio also functioned as a pip-squeak transmitter to enable the position of the aircraft to be plotted by triangulation, a vital aid for any pilot who was unsure of his position while flying at night. The Spitfire had a full blind flying panel of instruments, including an artificial horizon to aid flying at night and in cloud (the German Messerschmitt Bf109 only had more primitive turn-and-slip indicators in the early years of the war). Cockpit lighting and the adjustable illumination rings of the gunsight of the Spitfire were all designed for night flying. The Spitfire had a full set of navigation lights and a retracting landing light under the port wing. At the start of the Second World War, Spitfires had a half-black, half-white colour scheme on their undersurfaces. This was for the easy recognition of them as RAF fighters when viewed at height through binoculars. Crucially, it allowed the aircraft to be identified as friendly if caught in the beam of a searchlight when operating at night.
The half-black half-white underside of a Spitfire in the first months of the war helped them be identified as friendly if caught in the beam of a searchlight at night.
It was in June of 1940, the month before the "official" start of the Battle of Britain, that the Spitfire saw a brief flurry of successes against the first tentative night raids on Britain by the Luftwaffe. On the night of the 18th/19th of June, "Sailor" Malan even managed to shoot down two Heinkel He 111 bombers at night in quick succession, while on the very same night, two other Spitfire pilots also shot down Heinkel He111s.³ Later in the month, on the night of the 26th/27th, another three Heinkels were claimed by Spitfire pilots. But the Spitfire squadrons were never again to equal this string of victories.
In truth, the Spitfire proved to be a poor night fighter. Of the three single-engined fighters available, the Spitfire Hurricane and Defiant, the Spitfire proved the least suited to the night fighter role. Its long nose restricted vision and its narrow-track undercarriage led to many accidents when taking off and landing at night (the Spitfire prototype was damaged during night-flying trials). The sparks and flames thrown out from the Merlin engine's exhausts could spoil the night vision of the RAF pilots, while the dull glow emitted from the exhausts could alert German bomber crews to their presence. These problems were alleviated by fitting "blinker" plates on the side of the aircraft to shield the exhausts from the view of the pilots and coating the exhausts with a thick coat of red lead paint to stop them from glowing. The Hurricane, with its wide-track undercarriage and twin landing lights, was better suited to night-flying, so much so that they were often used for night intruder sorties over Northern France and Belgium. The Defiant proved the best of the three fighter types for night fighter duties. It too had a wide-track undercarriage and twin landing lights, while the extra pair of eyes of the rear gunner helped spot enemy bombers and its slightly higher fuel capacity meant longer patrol times in search of the enemy. More importantly, the turret-mounted armament meant that the Defiant could approach its target from the side or below (in a no-allowance scenario) and more easily keep it in view if it took evasive manoeuvres. Whereas, both the Spitfire and Hurricane would usually lose sight of an enemy bomber in the dark if it dropped below their noses.
However, the night interception rate of all the RAF single-engined fighters was disappointing. Without any airborne radar equipment and with no ground-based radar coverage over land for the first two years of the war, they struggled to find enemy bombers during the night.
During the winter of 1940/41, it was the radar-equipped Blenheim and Beaufighter twin-engined fighters that had the most success against German night bombers. In the following years, the Beaufighter went on to be the foremost British night fighter, joined in mid-1942 by the radar-equipped Mosquito. The following Winter (1941/42), two squadrons of Spitfires (Nos 111 and 65) were dedicated to the night fighter role. They were given an all-over finish of black paint and had their engine exhausts covered with red lead to mask the glow they emitted. Some of their aircraft had "fish-tail" exhausts and blanking plates fitted to shield the pilot's view of the exhausts. Operating out of Debden in Essex, they were trained in the "Smack" night interception procedure which involved cooperating with searchlights. Individual Spitfires would orbit a searchlight until a target was detected. Then the searchlight would dip towards the direction of the target, or in the direction of another searchlight that would further lead the fighter towards the enemy aircraft. Once near the target aircraft, it would be illuminated by the searchlight(s) for the Spitfire to attack. In the event, the Germans did not renew their night bombing of Britain in any great force during the winter of 1941/42 (although the Baedeker Raids would occur the following Spring), so the "Smack" squadrons saw no actual night action. However, they were still wearing their all-black scheme when they were scrambled to fly against the German fighters providing cover for the "Channel Dash" by the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on the 12th of February 1942. They reverted to their normal camouflage later in the month. ⁴
In truth, the Spitfire proved to be a poor night fighter. Of the three single-engined fighters available, the Spitfire Hurricane and Defiant, the Spitfire proved the least suited to the night fighter role. Its long nose restricted vision and its narrow-track undercarriage led to many accidents when taking off and landing at night (the Spitfire prototype was damaged during night-flying trials). The sparks and flames thrown out from the Merlin engine's exhausts could spoil the night vision of the RAF pilots, while the dull glow emitted from the exhausts could alert German bomber crews to their presence. These problems were alleviated by fitting "blinker" plates on the side of the aircraft to shield the exhausts from the view of the pilots and coating the exhausts with a thick coat of red lead paint to stop them from glowing. The Hurricane, with its wide-track undercarriage and twin landing lights, was better suited to night-flying, so much so that they were often used for night intruder sorties over Northern France and Belgium. The Defiant proved the best of the three fighter types for night fighter duties. It too had a wide-track undercarriage and twin landing lights, while the extra pair of eyes of the rear gunner helped spot enemy bombers and its slightly higher fuel capacity meant longer patrol times in search of the enemy. More importantly, the turret-mounted armament meant that the Defiant could approach its target from the side or below (in a no-allowance scenario) and more easily keep it in view if it took evasive manoeuvres. Whereas, both the Spitfire and Hurricane would usually lose sight of an enemy bomber in the dark if it dropped below their noses.
However, the night interception rate of all the RAF single-engined fighters was disappointing. Without any airborne radar equipment and with no ground-based radar coverage over land for the first two years of the war, they struggled to find enemy bombers during the night.
During the winter of 1940/41, it was the radar-equipped Blenheim and Beaufighter twin-engined fighters that had the most success against German night bombers. In the following years, the Beaufighter went on to be the foremost British night fighter, joined in mid-1942 by the radar-equipped Mosquito. The following Winter (1941/42), two squadrons of Spitfires (Nos 111 and 65) were dedicated to the night fighter role. They were given an all-over finish of black paint and had their engine exhausts covered with red lead to mask the glow they emitted. Some of their aircraft had "fish-tail" exhausts and blanking plates fitted to shield the pilot's view of the exhausts. Operating out of Debden in Essex, they were trained in the "Smack" night interception procedure which involved cooperating with searchlights. Individual Spitfires would orbit a searchlight until a target was detected. Then the searchlight would dip towards the direction of the target, or in the direction of another searchlight that would further lead the fighter towards the enemy aircraft. Once near the target aircraft, it would be illuminated by the searchlight(s) for the Spitfire to attack. In the event, the Germans did not renew their night bombing of Britain in any great force during the winter of 1941/42 (although the Baedeker Raids would occur the following Spring), so the "Smack" squadrons saw no actual night action. However, they were still wearing their all-black scheme when they were scrambled to fly against the German fighters providing cover for the "Channel Dash" by the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on the 12th of February 1942. They reverted to their normal camouflage later in the month. ⁴
"Operation Smack" Spitfire Mk Vb, 111 Squadron, Winter 1941-42. Other photos (covered by copyright and not reproduced here) show that some of the aircraft involved had much smaller fuselage roundels with reduced areas of white and yellow and possibly red squadron codes to reduce their visibility in the dark. One photo shows one of the Spitfires with "fish-tail" exhausts and blanking plates in front of the cockpit to reduce the glare from the engine exhausts.
But that was not the end of the Spitfire's use at night. Up until the end of 1942, Spitfire squadrons flying the Spitfire Mk V, with the "A" or "B" wing that had the retractable landing light, were still deemed to be day-and-night fighters with the expectation their pilots would do practice flights at night to "keep their hand in" (although many pilots seemed to have managed to avoid this duty). The usual means of employing Spitfires were on so-called "fighter nights" when a number of fighters would be detailed to patrol over a likely target city at different heights. In his book "From The Cockpit-Spitfire", Wing Commander Tom Neil recorded in some detail what may have been the last Spitfire "fighter night" sorties of the war, by seven pilots of No 41 Squadron from RAF Woodvale in defence of Liverpool on the night of the 29th of November 1942. The introduction of the AMES Type 7 Ground-Controller-Interception (GCI) radar, capable of tracking enemy bombers over land and guiding radar-equipped Beaufighters and Mosquitos to interceptions, made the use of the "fighter night" tactic redundant.
That the Spitfire should not be used as a night fighter in the longer term seems to have been determined some months earlier when it was decided to omit the retractable landing light under the port wing on the new C-type "universal" wing introduced on Spitfire production lines in mid-1942 and used on late production Spitfire Mk Vs and the Spitfire Marks VII, VIII and IX.
Many years later, a Spitfire did fly in a black colour scheme again. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Spitfire Mk XVI, TE311 flew in a coating of black primer (except for rudder, elevator and undercarriage doors) during the 2017 display season.
NOTES
¹ The Air Ministry F37/34 specification that covers the development of the Spitfire prototype is very brief. It called the aircraft an "Experimental High Speed Single Seat Fighter". It said that the aircraft must conform to all the requirements in the earlier F7/30 specification except for a few minor details listed. The earlier F7/30 specification was for a "Single Seat Day and Night Fighter". That was then followed by specification F10/35 that ordered the Spitfire into production as a "single-seater day and night fighter". To read about some of the myths that have grown up around the F7/30 specification, there are extra details at <this link>. To read the F7/30 specification in full there is a PDF copy at <this link>.
² It was not only the RAF that thought that bombing attacks would come at night, most of the popular media had the same assumption. For example, see the opening scenes of the film "Things to Come" (released in 1936) or read Nevil Shute's "What Happened to the Corbetts" (published 1939).
³ The four Spitfire victories on the night of the 18th/19th of June 1940, came before the fighting in France had finished (the Franco-German Armistice was signed on the 22nd of June). The German night-bombing raid by Heinkel 111s of KG4 was a disaster for the Germans, with six Heinkels being destroyed by the British defences and another two returned with heavy damage. The full moon that night would have helped the defending British fighters see the attacking German aircraft. The German's targets had been RAF airfields and oil storage tanks but none were hit. One of the German bombers dropped bombs on the outskirts of Cambridge, killing nine civilians and injuring another ten, the first casualties of aerial bombing on mainland Britain in WW2. The German propaganda ministry later excused the bombing by saying it was in retaliation for a (non-existent) raid on the German University town of Heidelberg.
⁴ The "Smack" night interception operation in the winter of 1941/42 is described in Dr Alfred Price's book "Spitfire at War:3" (see sources below). This states that only 111 and 65 Squadron were involved. For some reason, some internet articles also list No 41 Squadron as taking part. Research by Ray Dun shows this cannot have been the case, No 41 Squadron did not carry out any night-time flying (not even practice flights) during the period involved and there is no record of the squadron's aircraft ever being painted in an all-black scheme. The colour profile artwork of an all-black Spitfire in 41 Squadron codes to be found on the internet seems to be a pure invention. My Thanks to Ray Dunn for sharing his research into 41 Squadron and finding out the exact date and the number of aircraft involved in the "Fighter Night" recorded by Tom Neil.
² It was not only the RAF that thought that bombing attacks would come at night, most of the popular media had the same assumption. For example, see the opening scenes of the film "Things to Come" (released in 1936) or read Nevil Shute's "What Happened to the Corbetts" (published 1939).
³ The four Spitfire victories on the night of the 18th/19th of June 1940, came before the fighting in France had finished (the Franco-German Armistice was signed on the 22nd of June). The German night-bombing raid by Heinkel 111s of KG4 was a disaster for the Germans, with six Heinkels being destroyed by the British defences and another two returned with heavy damage. The full moon that night would have helped the defending British fighters see the attacking German aircraft. The German's targets had been RAF airfields and oil storage tanks but none were hit. One of the German bombers dropped bombs on the outskirts of Cambridge, killing nine civilians and injuring another ten, the first casualties of aerial bombing on mainland Britain in WW2. The German propaganda ministry later excused the bombing by saying it was in retaliation for a (non-existent) raid on the German University town of Heidelberg.
⁴ The "Smack" night interception operation in the winter of 1941/42 is described in Dr Alfred Price's book "Spitfire at War:3" (see sources below). This states that only 111 and 65 Squadron were involved. For some reason, some internet articles also list No 41 Squadron as taking part. Research by Ray Dun shows this cannot have been the case, No 41 Squadron did not carry out any night-time flying (not even practice flights) during the period involved and there is no record of the squadron's aircraft ever being painted in an all-black scheme. The colour profile artwork of an all-black Spitfire in 41 Squadron codes to be found on the internet seems to be a pure invention. My Thanks to Ray Dunn for sharing his research into 41 Squadron and finding out the exact date and the number of aircraft involved in the "Fighter Night" recorded by Tom Neil.
LINKS
Memoir of flying Spitfires at night in defence of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, by William Robertson McRae
SOURCES
Memoir of flying Spitfires at night in defence of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, by William Robertson McRae
SOURCES
"From The Cockpit - Spitfire": By Wg Cdr T.F.Neil. Published by Ian Allan Ltd in 1990. ISBN 0 7110 1918 5
"Spitfire At War 3": by Dr Alfred Price. Chapter 10 "Spitfire Night Fighters" covers the "Smack" interception methods of 1941/42. Published by Ian Allan in 1990. ISBN 0 7110 1933 9.
"The Legendary Spitfire Mk I/II, 1939-41": By Dr Alfred Price in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series, details the events of 18-19th June 1940 and has a brief account of a Spitfire night patrol by Flg Off "Wimpey" Wade which ended with him having to bale-out and abandon his Spitfire when his radio failed and he could not ascertain his position or ask for runway lights to be lit.
"Spitfire At War 3": by Dr Alfred Price. Chapter 10 "Spitfire Night Fighters" covers the "Smack" interception methods of 1941/42. Published by Ian Allan in 1990. ISBN 0 7110 1933 9.
"The Legendary Spitfire Mk I/II, 1939-41": By Dr Alfred Price in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series, details the events of 18-19th June 1940 and has a brief account of a Spitfire night patrol by Flg Off "Wimpey" Wade which ended with him having to bale-out and abandon his Spitfire when his radio failed and he could not ascertain his position or ask for runway lights to be lit.
Note- This article was not part of the original "Spitfire!" book-on-a-floppy issued for the Amiga and PC computers back in 1992.
